Rupert Murdoch owner of 21st Century Fox, said the channel was being withdrawn as it was not commercially viable.

For a while, disagreements and discussions including the bid, were going on between Sky and Fox News, which ended in a Fox withdrawal. But a source told the BBC, that the decision was not related to Fox’s takeover bid for Sky.

According to a company spokeswoman said, “ Fox has decided to cease providing a feed of Fox News Channel in the UK.She also adds “ we have concluded that it is not in our commercial interest to continue providing Fox News in the UK.”

However Sky stopped broadcasting the US television network in the UK from 4pm on Tuesday.

Sky eyes

The company source said complaints against Fox News in relation to takeover bid was not the reason for the TV network being dropped.

According to the source “Fox News focused on the US market and designed for a US audience and accordingly, it averages only a few thousand viewers across the UK. Fox News had in average about 2K viewers daily.The costs of distributing the US network in the UK were not in commercial interests of 21st Century Fox to continue.

While the owner of the company Rupert Murdoch says otherwise.

"When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song." -- Sony BMG attorney Jennifer Pariser